Monday Quickie - Hall Of Fame Ballot Out

 As reported by Ken Rosenthal. 

For Nats fan this is the first "Werth" ballot. Not that he will or should get in but he's there signifying a certain distance from that era of Nats baseball. 

WORST GUY ON THE BALLOT

Huston Street and it's not particularly close. ROY, Street was a solid closer for a decade before breaking down and seeing his career abruptly end.  Two time All-Star, a couple stray MVP votes... I mean by virtue of being a "closer" and getting saves he gets on here but it's not deserved really. 

BEST GUY NOT ON THE BALLOT

These are never huge losses. Nine out of 10 guys on it aren't getting in, so a mistake that left off the 10th best guy here when 2 might make it... doesn't really matter. But still we go on. For my money give me Ubaldo Jimenez, who put up a 19-8 season with a 2.88 ERA pitching for Colorado. In another world maybe we're remembering the guy as one of the best pitchers of the "around 2010" time frame.  

WHO WILL GET IN

I think they'll get Scott Rolen in. He's been steadily gaining ground and was almost up to 2/3rds last year. He's clearly one of the best 3rd basemen of all-time so if they can get past the weird "I'll judge catchers differently and middle infielders differently and maybe CF differently but not 3B differently" he'll get over the hump this year. If not it'll happen eventually. 

Helton (.316 lifetime hitter with 369 homers), Wagner (probably best closer not in), and Jones (maybe best defensive CF in generations and a decent hitter) all have cases but they all have issues. Helton - Colorado, Wagner - he's still a closer, Jones - spent the last third of his career as a terrible average masher. 

Beltran, who's the biggest new name should get close but will probably go through a couple years of vetting / punishment for the Astros stuff. 

WILL ANYONE NEW HANG ON UNTIL NEXT YEAR?

Beltran for sure. Lackey as a 3 time WS winner with three different teams is a good bet too. After that I don't know. Two or Three "keepers" is about par for course. This being a weak class could help guys like Weaver (underrated solid arm for a long while), Matt Cain (crucial member of 2 SF titles), and maybe even Werth who media types seem to like and lionize a bit to stick around. But maybe not. 

ANY GOOD CLASSES COMING UP?

Next year is ok - Beltre, who should be a lock. Utley who people like, and Mauer who is thought of probably above his worth (but his worth would be like 2nd in this year's class) David Wright and Bartolo, both who won't make it, make it more a fun class for talking about.  2025 you get Ichiro - who is overrated in terms of pure major league contribution but given when he came in and what he did should be a no-brainers and CC Sabathia who is an interesting case. 2026 is a barren wasteland best not talked about except by the names I mentioned already as a place to possibly get in.